Were they ever any good? I never heard their records growing up in NZ - doubt they were even released there, their appeal being very much for the UK. I've heard lots about them since as they are great characters and fabulous musicians and have often featured on Robert Elms show. This programme revealed nothing new and didn't make we want to rush out and buy a Best Of but it's a decent enough doc' on two journeymen who got lucky once they started doing pub singalong-style songs rather than country rock. Likeable men - anyone have any anecdotes about them?

Someone told me they're sampled on an Eminem record: "My Name Is" (one of his best).

Were they ever any good? Well, they did what they did very well. The 'Stage Cockney' act is an old music hall tradition into which they fit rather neatly. Records like "Rabbit Rabbit" make sexism seem so cute and lovable, after all, and "There's No Pleasing You" is almost worthy of Fats Domino.

(Just in case anyone gets on my case, I am being ironic - to a point.)

Charlie was an early champion of Chas & Dave. The compilation 'Honky Tonk Demos' features them doing "One Fing 'n' Annuver", recorded live in session with Mickey Burt on drums. Charlie's notes are as follows:

"Taxi driver Terry Adams hammered on my front door one night and handed me two albums, one by Jerry Lee Lewis, the other by Chas 'n' Dave. Jerry Lee's album was predictable, but Chas 'n' Dave's One Fing 'n' Annuver was new territory to me - cockney rock 'n' roll? Their approach sounded so straightforward, I trusted a hunch and called Chas to suggest that he and Dave come into the studio to play a few songs live on air. Blissfully unaware of my ignorance as a live session engineer, Chas said all right, and on the following Sunday in less than an hour we somehow got the mikes ready in time for Chas, Dave, and drummer Mickey Burt to start the show with six songs off-the-cuff. Chas turned out to have had an impressive pedigree as a musician in various legendary bands, but by this time he and Dave were systematically ignoring everything to do with "the music business," indulging themselves by playing whatever they fancied in a pub way off the beaten track in Stratford, East London. Never losing their individuality, they went on to sell hundreds of thousands of albums featuring a mixture of mischievous original songs and sing-along oldies. On Top of the Pops, they played live while everyone else mimed."

Thanks Rob - a great post. I imagine Charlie knew them through the country rock band they had Heads Hands & Feet with Albert Lee? He definitely liked that sound back then.

Adam, it's Dave's bass line from a session he cut for a female singer I have never heard of that Dre sampled for Em's breakthrough single. Not sure if Chas is on piano on the session. The bass line is discussed in the doc' and that record went on to be sampled by Wu Tang and others. No mention is made of whether he ever saw any money from the sample royalties - as a session musician would he be entitled to some? Or would they go to the songwriter/label/main artist? I ask as I believe Clive Stubblefield never made any money from all those James Brown samples of Funky Drummer.

Yes, a nice little oasis of fun in the tv schedules. It did get a mention in the documentary on BBC4 the other night. Clarence was not mentioned but it was something of wonder that they also got Eric Clapton and Albert Lee on prime time. Also, I seem to remember, Lulu.

Charlie was a fan early on. I especially remembering him amused by their rhyming of laquered and knackeredin a song called Scruffy Old Cow.

I know we've touched on it before but their idea of making rock'n'roll records in a London voice was a very interesting and must have been quite limiting but it looks like they were, in anyone's terms, very successful. They somehow ended up marrying the music hall to the football terraces as the commentary in the documentary had it.

I have a friend who quite seriously suggests that ANY song in English could be covered by Chas'n'Dave. We tried it out, in a theoretical manner of course, and found that the 1st Velvet Underground album had some particularly good examples: "Heroin", "Venus In Furs" and "Femme Fatale" sound excellent in an exaggerated cockney accent with suitably 'jaunty' pub piano accompaniment.

Labi Siffre is the artist sampled - I thought it was a she by the name. Doh! Fascinating character who I must admit to being completely ignorant of. Here's Wikipedia on the famous sample:

For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is", hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song I Got The for the rhythm track. Siffre took exception to the lyric objecting to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims". This tune also featured English duo Chas & Dave who were at the time prominent Session musicians.Eminem and Dr Dre edited their song to get the sample cleared. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1975 album "Remember My Song" (remastered on EMI CD in 2006) and on the 2006 EMI CD of re-mastered tracks "The Best of Labi Siffre". The song, "I Got The" is often incorrectly referred to as “I Got The Blues”, a title Labi rejected as being "a cliché too far". "Remember My Song" is also notable for the track "The Vulture", which enjoyed popularity on the British Rare Groove scene in the 1990s, particularly after its inclusion on the 1999 Capitol Rare 3 compilation.

garth cartwright wrote:Labi Siffre is the artist sampled - I thought it was a she by the name. Doh! Fascinating character who I must admit to being completely ignorant of. Here's Wikipedia on the famous sample:

For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is", hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song I Got The for the rhythm track. Siffre took exception to the lyric objecting to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims". This tune also featured English duo Chas & Dave who were at the time prominent Session musicians.Eminem and Dr Dre edited their song to get the sample cleared. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1975 album "Remember My Song" (remastered on EMI CD in 2006) and on the 2006 EMI CD of re-mastered tracks "The Best of Labi Siffre". The song, "I Got The" is often incorrectly referred to as “I Got The Blues”, a title Labi rejected as being "a cliché too far". "Remember My Song" is also notable for the track "The Vulture", which enjoyed popularity on the British Rare Groove scene in the 1990s, particularly after its inclusion on the 1999 Capitol Rare 3 compilation.